


Sisters!

by saliache



Series: Destiny Drabbles [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Alien Politics, Fundament siblings, Gen, Helium Court, Hope for the future, Osmium Throne, What's the point of making OCs if you can't watch them die in vain?, ambassadors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saliache/pseuds/saliache
Summary: Sathona sits with her siblings and watches an exchange of ambassadors.
Series: Destiny Drabbles [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1928614
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Sisters!

Sathona hates the light. She hates it with a gelid intensity that makes her seethe and bubble in writhing helplessness. Light burns. It blinds the eyes and awakens the attention of watchful predators. It carves through mutable flesh, it reaches deep into her very core and rewrites her genetic codes with failure, with mutation, with cancer. It would change her into a monster if it can. She has already decided that any place she makes will be dark. Dark enough to drown even the stars. As dark as she can make.

Therefore one of her greatest joys is watching her father at the helm, tuning the great engines so that they draw forth cloud cover, obscuring the skies. Stormjoys flit between banks of sulfur and hydrocarbon vapor, drawn to the electric potential of the great flight vanes. Let them bear the brunt of the hunger in the skies. The Osmium Throne flies below them like a swooping mother, secure in its insignificance.

“I want to fight the stormjoys,” Xi Ro complains, as short-sighted as ever. Sathona hushes her sister and watches as a cloud drifts too close to one of the vanes. It shatters in a cloud of ionizing radiation, driving away the swooping figures gliding in its depths. Their father’s great invention is both motive force and protective barrier. It gives them an advantage over their enemies. It is a magnificent accomplishment that will outlast its creator.

This is right and proper. This is how the universe should be.

“I want to make something like that,” Sathona sighs. “Something big. Something lasting.”

“I don’t think you can make anything bigger than our father’s engines,” Xi Ro observes. “And it keeps breaking down. We’ve had to fix it three times in the past year already.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Sathona scolds, although her heart isn’t in it. Xi Ro thinks in terms of real things. It is her greatest strength, even though it makes her a boring companion to speak to.

An eerie wail splits the air. The sisters look up; another continent is descending upon them, buffeted by the storm winds. A contingent of stormjoys meets it midair, baiting its inhabitants. Sathona watches with quiet satisfaction as one of them lifts a knight and carries him off, blades waving futilely.

Quiet footsteps echo behind them; a soft clicking of chitin claws on the sail bladder of the heaving engine. Their sister drops down to the ledge beside them, head cradled pensively in her arms.

“How many of us do you think they’ll try to eat this time?” she wonders with a faint sigh. “Last time I had to kill two of their knights when they tried to eat Aurash. No doubt they’ll be hungry for me.”

Xi Ro reaches out to pat her sister on the shoulder comfortingly. “No one’s eating you, Fugu. You’re the biggest one out of all of us. You’re almost a knight now. They can’t touch you.”

But Fugu is not convinced. Sathona can see her sister’s hesitation, her eternal worry, and she adds her arm to Xi Ro’s.

“Leave the thinking to me,” she advises. “Besides, don’t you want to meet Aurash when she returns from her trip to the Tungsten Monoliths? You know she’ll have a special story just for you.”

Fugu and Aurash are the closest of their siblings; when Aurash becomes king, Fugu will be his champion. Sathona, Xi Ro, and their surviving siblings will become first in his court. They will be the strongest claimants to the Osmium Throne, even stronger than their father. Maybe even strong enough they will no longer need to hide from predators. Sathona looks forward to this.

“Maybe,” Fugu allows, wavering.

“Why don’t you think of what your knight name will be?” Xi Ro offers unexpectedly. “I’ve already thought of mine!”

“Oh?” Fugu asks, curious, and when Xi Ro tells her they all burst out in heady laughter.

“It’s a good name,” Xi Ro protests. “I like it.”

Sathona grips her sister’s hand in hers. “Then that’s what it will be,” she promises.

Above them, the Helium Court looms like a lingering refutation of her words. They are descending. The Osmium Throne makes way.

Sathona has her vials of bitter acids and caustic poisons with which to confuse and dissolve her attackers. Xi Ro has her bait stars, blinding flashes of light bright enough to sear the eyes from any head. Fugu takes her sword in hand, the sword with which she has already slain two knights. They will separate, and hide, and when the danger has passed they will meet up again and plan a suitable revenge.

The Helium Court is a spiraling ravenous horde, crowned knights dropping to the Osmium Throne with iridescent wings spread wide in mocking challenge to the stormjoys descending by their thousands to the feast. The ambassador will come after the way has been cleared.

Sathona doesn’t stay to look. She has a hiding place to reach, and traps to deploy. She refuses to die here uselessly. Behind her, she hears the sounds of her sisters scrambling for their own safety.

When the ambassador descends, she eats Fugu first.


End file.
